Sunday, November 27, 2016

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed the last full week of November. By the next post, December will have arrived! I don't know if anyone else has a favorite month, but November as mine. So as much as I love snow, holidays, and winter decorations, I am sad to see November go...

But November has been a very productive month for me--relatively speaking. It is my first month as a full-time writer and I did okay on writing. I managed to enter a few contests, write the entirety of a new manuscript and get half-way through a large project that has been on my list for years!

Granted, my injury did make it a little more difficult to write. I have back problems and pinched nerves, so only being able to move a certain way and sit in certain positions did make it very difficult for me to stay in the same place for a long time, even to write.

But the good news is that I seem to be on the road to recovery! The swelling in my ankle has gone down to the point where I can actually see the bones in my ankle once more. However, the bruises that have surfaced are nice and black...

I still cannot put weight on it, but I am able to straighten my leg more than two weeks ago. There is also nerve damage that will take a very long time to heal. My goal is simply to walk like a human being again by the new year.

Now, onto the writing updates!

A few new things are in store. First, there is a poll I will be holding for a few weeks. I have been considering changing the cover of The Significant. It is a difficult decision for me, as I really like the cover it has, but I would like to post a question to my readers about a possible new cover. Just sound off in the comments below or on my social media pages what you think of the possible new cover. If I get good response from it, I will change the cover in the beginning of 2017.

Now, for the new project updates!

Good news, yesterday, I finished the rough draft of The Degenerates! (Total words: 66,483)

Ignore the bad grammar...

This project was surprisingly difficult, but the hardest part is over. That means that The Degenerates is now moving into what I call my "Red Editing" stage. I do four rounds of editing, the first round is Red Edits where I do an enormous amount of editing with a red pen. After that, I go to Blue Edits, which is more for flow and story development. Then I do it all over again! It's not really a lot of fun, but very very necessary.

So now, you will be seeing updates that look like this:

Total Words in November: 106,510

Red Edits:

The Degenerates - 5% Complete

In Progress:

The Deserted: 14,801 words - 15% complete (Likely to be updated later tonight)

The Faith: 49,206 words - 50% complete

Inside the Silence: 27 words - 1% complete

What?! Is that a new project?

Yep! Another one has been added to the docket. This particular project might move kind of slow, but I will keep you updated as it has taken The Degenerate's place on the In Progress list! Check back or sign up for my monthly newsletter to stay up-to-date on yet another project!

Well, that's what I've got for you today! Follow me on social media to sound off on the possible new cover for The Significant and for more constant updates about what's going on with the projects!

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Well, it has officially been one week since my accident with my horse (we're both fine), but it has greatly limited my ability to move. You can see for yourself in the picture.

So, what has happened? I've been writing up a storm!

During the writing, made a bit of a change. You may have noticed on the previous posts that I have four books going at the moment. Well, that has gone down to three now. In the process of writing "The Descendants" I realized that it would be better to combine the story elements of the "The Descendants" and "The Degenerates." Therefore, they have become the same book under the title of "The Degenerates."

I am really hoping to get those two done quickly because I would very much like to release them. You can see by the word count below that it is finally picking up speed now that I found a better way to tell the story. As I still cannot really move all that much, I am really hoping for some good writing time in the next few days before Thanksgiving so that I can get these done and out to you guys to enjoy.

Now, about "The Faith" Book 1. Here's the deal, if there is a book I would rather be writing, it would be this one. I did a huge sprint on it early in the week, and then purposely pushed it to the side to work on "The Degenerates," since I plan to release that one before "The Faith." But that book has been an absolute blast to write.

So, at the moment, with it half-way done, I am looking to release it March 2017. That means that, once the rough draft is done, I will release the synopsis, eventually release the cover, and in the meantime, you get to scratch your heads wondering what "The Degenerates" and "The Deserted" are, because they are still a surprise!

Words, words, words. I actually finished the NaNoWriMo Challenge on Nov. 17, and since have been a little more lax about counting my words. Therefore, these words counts are not what I have written this week, but the word count of the entire book with approximate completion on the rough draft. I will, however, keep up with my words written in November count.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Well, this week has been interesting. I had a little virus that kept me very quiet for the beginning of the week, just in time to be bombarded with everything going on surrounding the presidential election.

No, I do not plan to post my opinions. There are plenty of boisterous voices on the internet as it is. My only plea to everyone is to be kind to one another.

Finally getting past the worst of this little bug, I managed to get some writing done. It is difficult to decide which projects to work on which days. Generally, I have two projects going on that do not have timelines on them. Now, I have two projects going that have time lines and a third that has a very tentative timeline. Trying to divide my energy between all of them is difficult, particularly this time of year as the holidays draw close and it is time to spend with loved ones.

Some great news is that The Significant received runner-up in the Shelf Unbound Indie Book Awards for 2016! Even though it is only a runner-up position, I still feel honored and thrilled that so many are finding The Significant enjoyable and captivating!

I'm also thinking about changing the cover of the Significant in the new year. Thoughts?

As for the NaNoWriMo updates, here are the words and approximate completions of the projects currently in the works!

That is what I have for you. Be good to one another and try to find peace in these turbulent times.

Now, I would have written more, but, if you follow me on social media, you'll know that I had an accident on my horse today. To summarize, my horse lost his footing, tumbled head first down, his butt came up and crashed down on my leg. Thankfully, it is not broken! But I cannot put weight on it, and it hurts like the dickens!

Hopefully, this will force me to keep my butt at the computer and write!

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Since I will be spending most of the day with my family, I will likely not get much writing done today. Therefore, I would like to just give a quick update on my NaNoWriMoprogress over the last 5 days.

Friday, November 4, 2016

Yep, that is a book trailer for the Significant. A lot of work and love went into that little video! I figure since everyone seems to like that book so much, a book trailer was a good way to show some appreciation. So send it around to everyone you think should read the book!

Granted, working on this has taken some time away from putting words down in new manuscripts, but that's alright. It's done and I can get back to fighting with fictional characters.

Even though we're not done with the first week of NaNoWriMo, I thought I would give everyone a small update on words put into the books for the last three days. Keep in mind, this was when I was putting in a lot of hours editing that trailer!